The Tested Genuineness Of Ou..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Good morning everyone. Would you please open up your Bibles to 1st Peter?

1st Peter chapter 1. This morning we're going to continue with our study from verse 6 through verse 9, but as we always do we're going to be reading the whole section from verse 1 to verse 9 to get the context of the passage that we are going to be studying this morning. through His Spirit help us to understand and to receive His Word. I'm reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible and this is the Word of God. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect, exiles of the dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable and defiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, might be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Verse 8.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. Amen. That is the word of God. Beloved, let me just remind you of the important things that we said last week when we had the opportunity to come together and meditate upon this passage of the scripture that we have here from verse 6 to verse 9.

I said to you that the apostle is transiting, is moving, is going through a transition from theology into practice. I said he's moving from gospel truth into gospel life from gospel theology or gospel knowledge into gospel experience those things that happen in the life of the christian and the apostle is making a big assumption think about this the apostle the only thing that he knows about those people who are receiving this letter is that they are going through tribulations and difficulties But in verse 6, the one that we have here at hand, he says, in this you rejoice. The apostle is not with these people. The only thing that he knows is that they are going through tribulations and difficulties and problems and trials. But then he comes to the conclusion that they are rejoicing.

He assumes in this you rejoice. That apostolic assumption of the rejoicing of the believers in the midst of trials and tribulations is derived from the organic connection of the gospel power that is given to the believer and the life that that power should produce. So it is not an option, it is not something that could happen, but rather when a person has been born again by the power of the Spirit, when that person has been chosen and elected by God from eternity past, and by the power of the Spirit this person has been given life through the power of the message of the Gospel in the life, death, and resurrection, and the ascension, and the reigning of the Lord Jesus Christ. When a person has been affected, has been changed, has been influenced, has been given life by that message, the life of that person is rooted in that spiritual reality. So then the apostle does not need to be next to them to assume that through the midst of tribulations and difficulties they rejoice.

Because it's not evidence, it's not His eyes that communicate to Him this rejoicing, but rather, it's the truth of the Gospel. It's what God, the Living God, does through this living and powerful message in His living children. So we said that this connection between truth and knowledge with life and experience is a supernatural connection. It's not something that I can produce, it's not something that I can do with my principles and with my morality and with the regulations of my life and the principles that I've learned through my life, but rather this is a supernatural connection. It is only the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is only the Holy Spirit that can produce in us that which we call the fruit of the Spirit.

Because the Apostle speaks here of joy. That we rejoice in this life which is a little while. We rejoice. And as we saw in Galatians 5, this rejoicing of the Christian in this present evil age, in this life, is a fruit of the Spirit. It is produced by the Spirit in our lives.

The Apostle Paul in Galatians 5 calls us to produce all of these fruits, joy and peace and love and self-control and goodness and kindness, all of these fruits. He calls us to produce those things, but he calls them fruit of the Spirit. So here you can see this glorious connection between the life of the true believer, the one who by faith has been united to Christ, with the work of the Spirit. So that which the Spirit produces in us, the fruit of the Spirit, joy, peace, faith, and all of these things, it is given to the Christian as something that the Christian produces. And this is glorious because He is the Spirit living in us.

It is Jesus Christ living in us by faith, and that life is now ours. It's like God sees the Spirit and His Son living in the believer, but it's the believer that lives that life of joy and peace and all of this glorious fruit of the Spirit. Now, beloved, this is very important. Because the thesis or the argument that I was making last week, that I was trying to communicate last week, is that the genuineness of our spiritual life, the internal life, the genuineness of that spiritual life, will produce genuine fruit, will produce genuine actions, genuine life. The genuineness of that which is inside will necessarily correspond to genuine fruit.

It's very easy and it's very simple for people to fake and to disguise and to produce things that are not real outside. But the things that are real in the Gospel and in Christ correspond always, always to a spiritual reality. Beloved, and this is very important because joy is not the only fruit of the Spirit that Apostle Peter is addressing here in this passage. It's not only joy, it's not only that he is calling us to rejoice in the midst of tribulation, but he's also going to address another fruit of the Spirit. And this other fruit of the Spirit is faith.

He's actually going to take the rest of the passage, and he's going to address not only the relationship between joy and faith, but actually what happened with this faith. And he calls that faith, not only faith, but he speaks of the genuineness of faith. And not only the genuineness of faith, but he speaks of the tested genuineness of faith. Beloved, the apostle says that in the gospel truth we rejoice even though now in this present life for a little while we have been grieved by various trials. And then he says, so that the tested genuineness of your faith And then he connects might be found to the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But the Apostle, in order that we may understand what he's trying to communicate to us, he's going to give us an analogy. He is going to compare our faith as a fruit of the Spirit with something very valuable and very important. And he's going to use the analogy of gold. He is going to say, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, and he's going to say that it's more precious than gold, that perishes when it's tested by fire, so that our faith might be found for glory and praise and honor at the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, the analogy goes like this.

So, like, gold is tested by fire, or better, the genuineness of gold is tested by fire, the genuineness of your faith is tested by trials so fire is to gold what trials is to the faith of the believer now but if you think about this beloved every time that you think about gold The first thing that comes into our mind is the value of gold. Those things that we can buy and purchase and obtain with gold because gold is precious in its value. But the apostle is going to do something very important because he's not going to take the analogy of the value of gold but rather he's going to take the analogy of the durability of gold or the endurance of gold. When you think about gold, you're not thinking about how long it lasts or how long it goes for. You think about the value of gold, how much you can purchased or obtained with gold.

But the apostle is going to leave that aside and he's going to take the analogy of the durability of gold, the endurance of gold. And based on that variable, he's going to say that faith is more precious than gold, because gold, when it's put through fire, it perishes. But genuine faith does not perish, but rather endures. So that means, beloved, that the preciousness of our faith is not derived from the things that we can obtain with our faith, like if we could obtain many things with gold, but rather the preciousness of the spiritual, genuine faith is derived from its endurance. The endurance of the faith, of the Spirit-given faith, is what makes faith precious.

Of course, beloved, we can obtain and receive many things with genuine faith. The righteousness of Christ, it is imputed to us through faith. We live this life by faith. But this faith finds its consummation or its acceptation or its confirmation by endurance. So it is when faith endures over time that faith becomes precious.

But the apostle speaks here also of a necessity. He says that we, during this little while of this life, we have been grieved by various trials. And then he says, if necessary. So the question, before we address the topic of all of these trials and faith and joy and all of these things, whose necessity is the apostle having here in his mind when he speaks of these trials he says here in the text he says in these you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary you have been grieved by various trials he says that if it's necessary you have been grieved by various trials whose necessity who defines that is if it's necessary that the christian or the faith of the christian might be put through trials, through difficulties. And the Apostle is going to give us the answer a little bit later in the book.

So I want you to see this with your eyes. I was going to quote this, but I want you to see it with your eyes because this is very important. So go to 1 Peter chapter 4 and see it with your eyes what the Apostle is going to say whose will or whose necessity or who is the one who defines the suffering or the trials or the difficulties of the Christians. So in 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 19 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 19, it says, Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will, so those who suffer, suffer according to God's will, entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. So those who are in Jesus Christ, they suffer according to God's will.

It is God's will that defines the necessity of the trial in the life of the Christian of those who are in faith. So it is God the one that defines and decides if it's necessary that a person goes through trial and difficulties in this present evil age. But now, beloved, this is very, very important. Because the New Testament, somehow, if you see the theology of suffering, the New Testament is kind of going to assume that if we are in Christ, and because the faith that we have in Christ, we live a life according to that faith, that we are going to go through trials and difficulties and persecutions. If you decide, Apostle Paul will say that if you decide to live a godly life, that you are going to be persecuted in 1 Timothy.

Or the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 5, he will say that blessed are those who are persecuted and reviled because of my name. Those who will be persecuted. Or the same Apostle Paul will say to the Philippians in chapter 1, that on the account of Jesus Christ, that for his name, it was given, it was granted to you, not only to believe, but also to suffer for his sake." So suffering and tribulation and difficulties is something that seems to be attached, connected with the nature of the faith of those who are in this world. And this is something that we have to understand, even beloved, even!

If when we open our eyes and when we live the lives that we have in the country where we live, there is not much of that, which is persecution. Because as we are going to see, it's not the trials that which defines our faith, but it's the substance of our faith what actually defines the type of faith that we have, beloved. So, trials, tribulations and difficulties. are governed by the will of God, and they seem to go attached to the life of the Christian. So that means, beloved, that trials, difficulties, all of these things, are the means by which God, in His will, tests the genuineness of the faith of those who profess to be in Jesus Christ.

The Apostle says that we suffer a little while in this present evil age or in this present time so that the tested genuineness of your faith is God the one who governs by His will. So all of these trials are the means by which God in His will tests the genuineness of the faith of those who say that they are in Jesus Christ. So the first question that we need to ask ourselves if we want to understand, beloved, the role of our faith through trials and difficulties and all of these things that bring sorrow to our lives, we need to understand the reason why God would test our faith through trials. Why does God test the faith of those who profess to be in Christ? Why does He do it?

Why does He decide in His sovereign will and in His power to put a Christian through trials and difficulties if He is the one who controls and governs everything that happens in this world? Why would He do that? I'm going to submit to you, beloved, that first of all, it's not because He needs a proof of the genuineness of the faith of a person. He knows who has a genuine faith and he knows those who profess with their lips that they believe but they do not actually believe in their hearts. He knows.

It is God the one who gives life. It is God the one who chose in eternity past. He was the one who wrote our names in the book of life. So He knows the ones who have genuine faith. So it's not because He does not know, but rather, it is because God...

I'm going to submit to you that God uses trials to complete the work that He has intended for us in this life. So basically what I'm trying to say is that trials are means used by God to purify or to sanctify or to cleanse or to bring to completion the purpose that God has for us in this life. If you remember, many times we have quoted already what Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 1. He speaks of the purpose of our election as believers. And then in Ephesians 5, he's going to give the purpose of the election of the church.

And then in Ephesians 1, the apostle is going to say, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus, even as he chose us before the foundation of the world to be what? holy and blameless so the lord has chosen us to be holy and blameless and then he speaks with the same language of the church in ephesians 5 the church has been also chosen sanctified by the washing of the word in jesus christ jesus christ gave himself up for the church when he's doing the analogy of husbands and wives love husbands love your wives as christ loved the church and gave himself up for the church What to purify the church by the washing of the water so that the church might not have a spring Wrinkle wrinkle, right wrinkle or spots that the church might be holy and blameless now beloved the sacrifice of jesus christ Judicially speaking is sufficient. So we have been entirely purified By the blood of the lord jesus christ, but there is also a purpose of god in conforming us to jesus christ in this time There is remnant of sin in us. So, trials and temptations and difficulties and all of these things are the means or one of the means by which God brings to completion this purpose that he has for the people and for the church. And beloved, the apostle Peter knew these things.

That's why later in chapter 1 in this book of Peter, he is going to say that we should not walk according to the passions of our former obedience, but that we should be holy just as He is holy, the one who calls us Jesus Christ is holy, so that we should be holy just as He is holy, beloved. So trials, temptations, difficulties, sorrows, and all of these things are under the government of God's will, and He uses those to bring to completion that purpose that He has in us. So that's the reason why He does it, beloved. We need to understand how. He does it and this is the glorious aspect of this message or what peter says here?

This is this is the profound aspect of how? Does god uses those trials? To bring to completion the purpose that he has for christians and for the church He wants people and the church to be holy and blameless conform to the image of jesus christ now How does god uses these trials in this little while which is our lives? How does he use those trials? to accomplish that purpose.

And this is when we have to go back to the analogy that the Apostle uses of gold put through fire. Think about this. What conclusions can you make when you put gold through fire? What are the outcomes, the only outcomes that you can have when you take that which you think is gold or what you assume is gold and you put it through fire? And I'm going to submit to you that at least two things you can conclude.

The first one is that if you have something that you think that is gold and then you put it through fire, the burning fire will consume that thing and tell you if it's gold or if it's not gold. So fire will help you to distinguish true gold from false gold. Not only that, but if you actually have true gold and you put true gold through fire, fire is going to help you to discern first of all that this is true gold but also to remove all the potential imperfections that gold may have and then just leave gold as it is so trials for our faith will do the same beloved God uses trials to discern the genuineness of our faith And remember, when I say are, I'm not assuming that all of us, or this hour belongs to all of us who are in Jesus Christ. I said that trials are the means by which God in His will tests the genuineness of the faith of those who profess to be in Christ. Those who say that are in Jesus Christ.

So trials will prove those who really are in Christ, and whose faith is genuine, and will also produce growing in those who are in Christ, but are also put through trials and tribulations. You might remember, beloved, the parable of the sower. Remember? When the Lord Jesus Christ, with the multitudes, will come to him, and he was speaking, he was teaching about the kingdom, and speaking of this parable of the sower, and there were at least, not at least, there were four different types of seeds or four different types of soils or ground let's say it better and then he's going to speak of one of them he's going to speak of the rocky or the stony ground and this he's going to say that the soil will throw the seed into the stony ground and the stony or the rocky ground did not have soil of depth and because it did not have depth or much soil, the seed will sprang up very quickly, but when the sun will come, the burning heat of the sun will destroy that which will sprang up. And then the Lord is going to explain that parable to the disciples, and He's going to say that the seed is the words of God.

And that when the Word of God fell on that stony ground, that it sprang up very quickly, and then he's going to see that the burning heat of the sun is the trials and the tribulations and the difficulties because of the Word. And when those trials and tribulations came, these people were destroyed with the burning heat of the trials and the tribulations. And then the sower could know that this one, of course, did not produce fruit as the seed that fell on the good ground. Beloved, it's simple, or let's take that word plurally, it's possible for humans to pretend to have something as not having that. Because a spiritual reality is not something that you can see in the outside.

But the Bible does speak that in the last time many people will depart from the faith. The Bible does speak of people that pretend to be in Christ. The Bible does speak of people who pretend to be united to Christ and who profess to have faith. In the last time, many people will depart from the faith. Many people will go out of us, because they are not of us.

Because if they were of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out of us, that we might know that they were never of us. Yeah, that is speaking of the Antichrist, but it's a principle of departing from the faith. Many people will depart from the faith, and trials and tribulations, the burning heat of the difficulties, will prove the tested genuineness of the faith of believers. That's why he does that.

He purifies his people. He purifies his church, beloved. But not only that, this is when he removes that which is not. But trials and tribulations, beloved, for the Christian, for the one who is gold, produces something glorious, and majestic and by the providence of God what our brother said this morning as he was speaking as well wow the Lord is so good because he put in his mind and his heart exactly what he put in mind for this passage here I want you to go to first to James and we're going to read a passage there and I want us to meditate about the purpose of God beloved the purpose of God in the trials for those who are truly in Jesus Christ. Now, this is very interesting, beloved, because James has a parallel passage or a parallel section to that which we find in 1 Peter.

First, Peter is writing to the elect who are in the dispersion. And then James, a born servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, writing to the 12 tribes which are in the dispersion, or which are scattered abroad. Similar audience. And then in verse two, he's going to say something. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kind.

Similar language, actually exactly the same words that Peter uses. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. He says, beloved, that we should count everything as joy because we know that the testing of our faith produces steadfastness. Now, beloved, faith or trials better discern who has real faith and who does not have real faith but trials will also produce something positive in those who have real faith and i want you to see here at least two things the first thing is that trials will produce in us steadfastness, that is, endurance, that it will help us to continue. Now, let me just help you with this, with what James is saying here.

Why would a rational person, beloved, why would a rational person, why would a normal person with a sound mind, with no problems in his mind, why would a rational person take his hand and put it in the fire and leave it there? Why would a person take his hand in the fire and just leave it there? The answer to that question is, he would not. He would not be a rational person if he just takes his hand and puts it into the fire and leaves it there. He would be an irrational person.

He would put the hand into the fire and remove it immediately from the fire. But the apostle, not only James here, but Peter, is saying that the Christian in the midst of fire is like the irrational man who endures through the pain and the sorrow and the difficulties of that fire. And that the fire produces in us endurance. So that the Christian is like the irrational person that comes and puts their hand into the fire and then perceiving and receiving all the excruciating pain of the burning heat that comes through the arm into our nerves, that we still decide to live a death. Now, the normal person would remove his hand from the fire because he knows that this is damaging to him.

But the glorious thing is, beloved, that the Christian will not remove the hand from the fire because the knowledge that we have is different to the knowledge that the rational person will have. Here the apostle says that we can count everything as joy because we know that the testing of our faith produces endurance. So for the Christian, beloved, pay attention to this, or rather for the rational person of the world who puts his hand into the fire, he is better off, he knows that he is better off by removing his hand from the fire. But the Christian, the believer, the one who is truly in Jesus Christ, knows that he is better off in the midst of the endurance and the tribulation and the fire. Why?

Because we know that there is a sovereign God who has put us through that fire. And then by having the certainty that the fire is controlled by the sovereign power of God, we know that it's better for the Christian to be and endure through the trial and the difficulty and the sorrow that we may have. But what I want you to see is that Peter, or James here, uses the word knowing. It is the certainty of what produces to be in fire, what helps us to produce endurance. Paul will say in Romans 5 that we rejoice in the midst of our afflictions because our afflictions produce endurance, and endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.

Here he says that the afflictions produces steadfastness. But now continue, beloved. Verse 4, and let steadfastness have its full effect you have to love this that you might be perfect and complete lacking nothing so the trial of the difficulty the testing of our faith produces a steadfastness and when steadfastness has come reach to his completeness this is so that we may not lack anything or that we may lack nothing beloved It has to come to your mind the similar language that the Apostle Paul uses in 2 Timothy 3, speaking of the Word of God. The Apostle Paul says that that which is sufficient to train the men of God, to exhort, to reprove, and to train him in righteousness, that that's the Word of God. That the Word of God is sufficient to make us complete.

lacking nothing, that prepares us. We are fully equipped for every good work. The Word of God and enduring faith, they always come together. It is the certainty, it is the assurance, it is the conviction that in the midst of the affliction, I'm better off than not being in the midst of it. Beloved, that's why many brothers and sisters around the world are willing to give their lives for their faith.

They are willing to be beheaded because of Jesus Christ. Because they know that in the midst of the fire, they are better off. They know that by the testing and the tribulation and the difficulty that they have a sovereign God who has said to them in His Word that this testing produces in them steadfastness. And not only that, but this is for the glory of God. That's why our faith, it is irrational for the world, beloved.

This is what the brother said in the morning. It is the promises of God. This is what he has said. That which feeds the faith of the believer. Beloved, think about this.

It is not only a certainty that abides in the mind of a person. This is the rational person who takes the hand off from the fire. It is a conviction that goes beyond the head and goes into the heart. That this becomes an assurance, a conviction, a complete certainty. That whatever happens to me in this present world, it is for my good.

That everything works for good, because God is the Sovereign One that controls and regulates everything. And this is communicated to you by the work of the Spirit through the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of God. Justifying faith comes by the hearing of the preached Word with the power of the Spirit. Enduring faith through trials and difficulties is also fed by the Spirit through the Word of God into our lives.

And when I say the Word of God, I'm not speaking about the pages of the book. I'm speaking about the truth that comes from the mouth of God, that is, the truths that are contained in this book. It is the Word of God, the one that gives us certainty and knowledge that when we are in the midst of trials and difficulties and temptations, that this is for the best of the Christian. Enduring faith, which is a genuine faith, is a faith that is fed by the promises of God. Not only fed by the promises of God, it is empowered by the Word of God, beloved.

And this testimony we can see all throughout Scripture. All throughout the Bible we can see how the people of God, when they are put through tribulations and when they are put through trials and difficulties, it is always the Word of God, the one that is going to bring judgment, or the one that is going to bring endurance. The many times that the people of Israel committed sins and they were taken into slavery or captivity, then what would the Lord do? The Lord will send a prophet to bring and speak the words of God. Some of them will reject the words of the prophet.

Some others will hold to the prophet or what the prophet said, and they will find rest in the word of God. And this is the great example that our brother gave us this morning with Abraham. Because Abraham will go through something very similar. Very similar. And people say that is Abraham the person who has gone through the most difficult test of the faith that a person can go through.

And just to finish, I want to bring your attention to that section which is found in Genesis 22. So if you have your Bibles, please go to Genesis 22. People say that Abraham is the person who has gone through the most difficult test of the faith. Now, beloved, remember that, as our brother has explained to us, Abraham was given the promise in Genesis 12 of this offspring that he would have of this land and the many people that would come from him. And then, later on in Genesis, he is given this son, Isaac.

But now here, the Lord is going to request something very difficult from Abraham. And I want you to see the tension of it, because we're speaking about his beloved son. And this is how the Lord is going to communicate to Abraham. He says in verse one, After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. And he said, Here I am.

He said, Take your son, your only son, Isaac. Whom you love and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." He says, he reminds him that is your only son and it is the one that you love. Go take him and you're going to offer him as a sacrifice. So Abraham rose early in the morning saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac.

And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood and the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son.

And he took his hand And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both to them together. Now verse 7. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, My father. And he said, Here I am, my son.

He said, Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the land for a burnt offering? Imagine what that question caused in the heart of Abraham. the fire and the wood, but where is the land for the burnt offering?" Verse 8, Abraham said, God will provide for himself the land for a burnt offering, my son. So they went both of them together.

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here I am. He said, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him.

For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught and faked by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son." What a test of faith, beloved, to Abraham. But it was, beloved, it was the promise that was given to him in Genesis 12, confirmed in Genesis 13, ratified in Genesis 15, and given and signed in Genesis 17.

That promise, that covenant that God established with Abraham, the one that moved Abraham to obey during the trial and the temptation of the difficulty here, and to accomplish what God had intended for him. The only thing that I want you to get in your heart, beloved, it is that it is not tribulation, it is not the trial, it is not the difficulty, that which defines the genuineness of our faith. It is the substance of our faith what defines if our faith is genuine or not. Just as the same sun destroyed the seed that fell on the stony or rocky ground. But the same sun provides the light and the heat for the seed that fell on the good soil to grow and produce fruit.

So trials do not define who we are in Christ, but rather our faith is the one that responds to the trials. That's why we do not have to go through the same trials that other brothers and sisters go through in the world, so that our faith is defined like theirs. It is the substance of our faith that which defines who we are in Jesus Christ. And I think that's why the apostles always say, various trials. Because it's in the providence of God that trials will be different and diverse for the saints.

But we are not concerned for the trials. We're concerned about the substance and the power that which is contained of the reality of our faith. And that is always beloved, attached to the promises that God has given us in His Word, so that when trial comes, I will have the power inside of me, through the Spirit, to face those trials. Beloved, because Abraham here was simply, simply a type, or probably I'll change the word simply, but it is a type of Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ, the Beloved, the Son of the Father, the Beloved of the Father, the One who was the Lamb that He Himself provide as a burnt offering for the redemption and the salvation of His people.

Now, let me just bring your attention to a couple of verses and we'll finish. Go please to Matthew 26. Let me make my final point and we'll finish. Beloved, because the faith of Christ as the incarnate Son was also tested through a trial, through a very difficult tribulation. He was going to die.

He was going to receive the wrath of God. He was going to receive the judgment of God. He was going to die the death of the cross. He was going to go through pain, but he was going to receive the righteous judgment of God. And then in Matthew 26 in verse 38-39, the Lord Jesus Christ will say, Then he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.

Remain here and watch with me. And going a little farther, He fell on his face and prayed saying, my father, if it be possible, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. He was going through tribulation to this sorrowful moment, but he says, not according to my will, but according to your will. Then the author of Hebrews is going to give us a little bit of light about this will that the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking about.

So go to Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10. The author of Hebrews is going to give us light of this will that the Lord Jesus Christ is submitting himself to, and that it is the fountain of the power that helped him to endure during this time. Hebrews 10 verse 5 he says, Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired but a body have you prepared for me in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken a pleasure then i said this is christ behold i have come to do your will oh god as it is written of me in the scroll of the book as it was written in the scroll of the book, as it was given in the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ was going to fulfill the will of God. It was the Scripture-fed, Spirit-empowered faith of Christ that helped him endure through these difficulties.

And then he saw the joy of doing the will of God. This is what the author of Hebrews, he will say in chapter 12. Go to chapter 12. Chapter 12, beloved, listen to this. Therefore, since the author of Hebrews has spoken about all these cloud of witnesses of faith, you know, the heroes of the faith in chapter 11, now in chapter 12 he says, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."

Verse 2, looking to Jesus. He is the founder and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. The joy of doing the will of God as it was written in the scroll of the book, glorifying the Father, the glory that they had before eternity began. It says, For the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Beloved, It is the will of God, as it is revealed in His book, in His scripture, the one that fits the certainty that we require and that we need to go through tribulations and difficulties.

Because it is His scripture that speaks of the Son. It is the scripture that speaks of Jesus Christ, the one who saved us, the one who redeemed us, the one who endured the race until the end. So looking to Jesus, we are to do exactly the same. He's the author and the perfecter of our faith. That's why the apostle will say that the tested genuineness of your faith It is to be found for the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then in verse 9 he will say, obtaining the outcome of your faith, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul. And the Lord is so good that that which is produced in us through the Spirit, because faith is a fruit of the Spirit, He calls it ours. He said, your faith. that your faith might be found for praise and glory and honor at the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is Christ the one who authors our faith?

And is Jesus Christ the one who perfects our faith, even if that process requires trials and tribulations? So looking to Jesus, the Christian can endure through the fiery trials of this present evil age. He is the substance of the faith that saved us and justified us. And Jesus Christ is the substance of the faith that helps us to endure and to persist and to go to the end. And beloved, this has to be glorious for your soul.

Because in the eyes of the world, we are irrational by keeping our hand in the fire. But we do it because we know that removing the hand It is more damaging, it's damning. We prefer to be in faith in Christ and endure whatever the Lord wills for our lives in this present evil age, knowing that He is sovereign and that everything that happens to His saints is so that at the end of the days He will say, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter the joy of your master. He calls us faithful.

He calls us good. And it is Him, the one who authors and who perfects our faith. Come and enter this everlasting joy of your master that was given to you, not because you are something, but despised of who you are by the grace of the gospel given to you by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the author and the perfecter of our faith. Amen.